


Choose me!

by strangelysweet



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi Goro being a little bitch, Love Triangles, M/M, Pining, Spa Treatments, akechi and mika are best friends, literally crack, love square????, oblivious kurusu akira, ryuji and akechi are pointing at each other like "gay??", shut up and let me have this, this is it, you know that spiderman meme?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:40:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24715468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangelysweet/pseuds/strangelysweet
Summary: Sakamoto Ryuji is determined to ask Akira out on a date. Unfortunately for him, he's not the only one.Akechi Goro has memorized Akira's schedule, so he knows exactly where to find him. The only problem is that he has no idea what to talk to him about.Meanwhile, Ryuji knows exactly what Akira likes, but is always in the wrong place at the wrong time.An unstoppable force meets an immovable object.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Mika, Akechi Goro & Sakamoto Ryuji, Akechi Goro & Sakura Sojiro, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Sakamoto Ryuji, Kitagawa Yusuke/Kurusu Akira, Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji, Sakamoto Ryuji & Sakura Sojiro, Sakamoto Ryuji & Takamaki Ann
Comments: 6
Kudos: 81





	Choose me!

Kurusu Akira wakes up every morning at 6:00am, leaves Leblanc at 6:45am, and arrives at the station at 7:00am. Akechi Goro knows this for absolutely no reason in particular, thank you very much. Maybe it's because he finds the boy intriguing, maybe it's because he's trying to assassinate him. You'll never know. It's a secret he will take to his grave. 

Kurusu Akira's favorite spot to hang out is on the roof, where he takes his favorite bread (chocolate filling, no gluten) and sits down. His favorite soda flavor is cherry or ginger (depends on the weather) and he talks about his favorite books and movies with whoever joins him on the roof. It's usually Ryuji or Haru, but Haru's too busy looking at her plants to harvest any kind of information about what Akira's favorite things are. Despite knowing all of this, Ryuji can never seem to catch Akira at the right time. Sakamoto Ryuji's expanded knowledge of Akira's likes and dislikes is something he will never admit to having. He just knows all of it because Akira's his best friend. Who he might want to be a little bit more than friends with, but no one has to know that. 

Both Akechi Goro and Sakamoto Ryuji find themselves following Akira's magnetic pull wherever he goes. Today, it takes them to Leblanc. At least, they thought it was Akira's magnetic pull. Maybe their instincts weren't as good as they thought, because they apparently just missed Akira. 

"Sorry, he just left. Can I get you anything in the meantime?" Sojiro asks, folding his newspaper and pointing vaguely to the kitchen behind him. 

Ryuji and Goro speak at the same time, each of them drowning out the other. They shoot each other a dirty look and open their mouths again. Once they mix their words for the second time, Goro turns to Ryuji.

"Will you stop? Honestly, the immaturity of some people these days." He grumbles, then adds that he would like a house blend to Sojiro. 

Ryuji scowls and bites back a retort. For once, he decides against dragging Akechi's sorry ass through the mud of his _flawless_ insults. 

"Just a soda, thanks." He mumbles to Sojiro.

They both take a seat at the bar, awkwardly sipping their drinks. Sojiro apparently can't read a room.

"So are you both here to see Akira? What for?" He doesn't look up from his crossword. Goro beats Ryuji again, answering first. 

"I was going to see whether or not he was available today." He says cheerily, checking his watch. 

"Same here. I was gonna take him out to see a movie." Ryuji swallows the last sips of his soda. Goro chokes on his coffee. 

That is a _much_ better idea than taking Akira to the aquarium. He eyes Ryuji as he coughs, wondering if he's also vying to take Akira's hand. There was no way he can lose to Ryuji. That would be an insult to his very small family consisting of himself and his monstera houseplant. How could _Ryuji_ , of all people, have a better idea for a date than Akechi Goro, the charismatic Detective Prince? Goro has girls willing to trespass on private property to get his autograph, and Ryuji only has more experience with real people. 

Oh, fuck, that's _it_. 

Goro doesn't stand a chance against someone who actually knows how to flirt normally. He's seen Ryuji around, always being touchy, and it makes his chest hurt with jealousy. All Goro does is call people 'intriguing' and shake their hand for about three minutes. Ryuji sighs, bringing Goro out of his spiral of increasing concern. 

"I'm gonna call him." He says, more to himself than the others. 

The dial tone sounded in the otherwise silent café. Ryuji tapped his fingers on the rim of his glass, watching the ice melt. 

"Hey, Ryuji, what's up?" Akira says from the other side of the line. Ryuji's face splits in a wide grin. 

"Yo, Akira! I was just wondering-" He starts, but is cut off. 

"Sorry, Ryuji, I'm in the middle of something right now. I'll call you back, okay?" 

The line cuts dead. A few of Ryuji's hopes and dreams die too, but no biggie. He tucks his phone back into his pocket, nodding in thanks to Sojiro as he took the empty cup. Goro smiles, all teeth and no eyes, propping his head on his hand. 

"What a shame. I heard something about being 'too busy'?" He asks, doe-eyed and shark-toothed. It takes everything in Ryuji not to slap the detective across his pretty face. 

"Not like _you_ called him. Bet he wouldn't even pick up." Ryuji growls, nodding to the sleek iPhone on the table. Goro raises his eyebrows, then slips off his gloves. 

Typing Akira's contact into his phone, he makes a show of pressing the call button, then holds it to his ear. The dial tone buzzes around the café for a second time. After a painstakingly long amount of time, Goro hears Akira's voice on the other side. 

"Hey, this is Akira." 

Goro smiles smugly at Ryuji, who crushes the can in his fist. "Hello, Akira, this is Akechi -"

"Sorry, I can't come to the phone right now. Leave a message after the beep, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible."

Goro hangs up. 

Ryuji snorts, trying and failing to hold in his laughter. Goro makes a face like he's just sucked off a lemon and slips his phone into the pocket of his jacket. The blonde coughs, attempting to hide a smile behind his fist as he hiccups with laughter. 

"Sorry, that's totally not funny at all." Ryuji wheezes, literal tears forming in his eyes. Goro knocks back his coffee, and Sojiro refills the cup without him having to ask. 

"Alright, alright, that's enough," Goro says, subtly kicking him underneath the bar. Ryuji's mouth falls open in shock. 

Goro's shin receives a sharp boot in retaliation. It is much harder than the kick he gave Ryuji, the blonde is not taking any prisoners. Goro's jaw clenches in pain, his leg throbbing. Looking down at the shoes Ryuji's wearing, he makes a mental note to not kick a delinquent wearing steel-toed boots. Goro glowers at the boy, honing his death squint into perfection as he imagines a laser burning through his forehead. 

"Fuck you." He whispers viciously, crossing his legs away from Ryuji's deadly feet. 

"No thanks. Go suck a dick." Ryuji grumbles, placing a hand over his mouth. It is not very effective, as Sojiro gives both of them a withering look. He sighs, folding his newspaper and pulling off his apron. 

"I'm leaving it to Akira to lock up. Don't burn the place down before he gets here." He says, tired of all the teenage bullshit in his café. 

The door closes with a small ding of the bell, Sojiro walking off into the backstreets of Yongen. He's not even halfway down the street when Ryuji and Goro yelling at each other. 

"What the fuck do you mean Boss said 'you're in charge'? He said nothin' like that!" Ryuji growls. 

"He directed the statement 'Don't burn anything down' at me, therefore he implied I am responsible for the café while he's away." Goro huffs, muttering thinly veiled insults at him. 

"That totally does not mean you're in charge! Dude, I wonder if you're really sane sometimes." 

They grumble at each other for a moment, then slide back into venomous silence. Ryuji huffs, unlocking his phone to see the photo of him and Ann last night. Ann is smiling at the camera, looking like a model ( _ha ha_ ) in her lime green face mask. Next to her, Ryuji grimaces back at his own face twisted in some kind of ridiculous caricature. He, too, was smothered in bright green gloop but doesn't look as good as Ann does. He recalls what they had been doing last night. 

\--

_"Ryuji, hold_ still _! I can't paint your nails if you're squirming around like a child." Ann chided, the black liquid dripping onto Ryuji's fingers. The unnatural blonde writhed like a worm on a hook, trying to prise his hand from Ann's vice grip._

_"Look, do you want to look like a pretty boy or not? Akira specifically said he liked boys who were comfortable in their masculinity." She huffed, knowing the weak spots Ryuji claimed not to have._

_"For real? Ann, bro, that's not fair." He whined, going to shove his face into a pillow but remembered the slime plastered over his face. Ann snatched the very expensive pillow away from him and tossed it over her shoulder._

_"Stop whining,_ princess _. It's just a little aloe, it's not going to magically shrink the size of your dick."_

_Ryuji narrowed his eyes at her. "I wasn't thinking of that before, and now I'm suspicious."_

_Ann rolled her eyes so hard she saw God._

_Ryuji was persuaded to sit still by Ann reminding him that black nail polish was punk. He watched as she meticulously brought the brush over his nails, surprisingly silent. She finished on his left hand and screwed the bottle shut, leaning back and exhaling loudly._

_"Phew, that's the second coat done. Wait for a bit, and I'll put the top coat on." She said, fishing around her bag for the other vial of yet another kind of goo Ryuji was letting her put on his body._

_He wiggled his fingers, watching the light catch on the not quite dry nails. Reaching out for the ice cream tub, his hand received a quick slap._

_"No moving! You're not even supposed to open your mouth with the face mask on. You're so lucky I'm nice." Ann sighed, grabbing two spoons from the table she had laid with practically everything Ryuji would expect in a_ Seventeen _magazine, like, 30 years ago._

_She plopped down on the couch next to him, remote in hand._

_"Ok, which bad teen movie will we use as background noise while you drone on about your hopeless crush?" She asked, flicking through Netflix._

_Ryuji peered at the flatscreen TV bigger than his dining table._

_"Let's go with that one." He said, gesturing vaguely at the entire screen. Ann frowned and pressed a random button. As the screen went black for the pre-credits exposition, she aggressively shuffled around to face him head-on. Ryuji sighed, rolling his eyes as Ann shook the bottle of clear nail polish._

_"What's new in the land of gay pining? I ask this as the lesbian ambassador." She said, gingerly starting on his right thumb._

_"We went running again. He's getting better, but he still can't catch up to me. He always starts sprinting when we get closer to the goal, but he starts too early and tires himself out before getting to the finish point. You know how he doesn't wear the long shorts, right? He wears the short ones, Ann. His ass is_ legendary _." He whispered, eyes widening in awe. Ann blinked, clearly unimpressed._

_She moved on to the next finger, nodding at him to continue._

_"I think I want to ask him out, Ann," Ryuji said, quietly._

_Ann dropped the brush in shock but caught it before it hit the couch. She coughed, thumping herself on the chest. She looked at Ryuji for help, clearing her throat._

_"Could've used a hand there." She choked out, glowering at him. Ryuji gave her the sassiest jazz hands she had ever seen._

_"Nails. Anyway, I think I want to ask him on a date." He continued._

_Ann raised her eyebrows and started working on the next nail. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea, Ryuji." She warned, glancing up at him. Ryuji scoffed._

_"Why?" He asked, incredulous. She inhaled a breath through her teeth, grimacing._

_"_ What _?" He asked again, louder. Ann waved it away, focusing on his fingernails. Ryuji grumbled, but let her concentrate. His eyes flitted to the TV screen, then he recoiled._

_"Wow, they're really going at it." He said, watching some girl eat some guy's face. Ann looked up, then pulled a face._

_"They've been like that for, like, five minutes." She shuddered, then looked at Ryuji._

_"_ Straight people _." They said in unison, both of them scowling._

\--

Ryuji turns his phone off and shoves it in his pocket, admiring the shiny black paint on his nails. He has to admit that Ann is pretty good. He notices the detective staring at them.

"Got a problem?" He hisses. Goro shakes his head, wrinkling his nose. 

"Why do you always assume I'm judging you?" 

Ryuji scoffs. "Because you always are." 

Goro shrugs then looks at his own nails. "I was merely reminding myself I haven't gotten mine done in a while." 

They sit in silence, the clock ticking away incessantly. Goro looks up at the painting on the wall, tapping his finger on the rim of his cup. Ryuji notices him staring and nods at it. 

"That's Yusuke's mom's painting. He's the kid." He says, fiddling with the drawstring of his hoodie. Goro hums. 

He watches the steady stream of people coming from the station, wondering what they were thinking when they decided that leopard print and zebra print were an acceptable combination. He winces, then turns to his empty cup of coffee. The one he had earlier that weekend wasn't nearly as good as this one. 

\--

_Mika made a disappointed noise at her phone, then scowled and set it face-down on the table._

_"God, people suck." She said, picking something out from under her nails. Goro sighed, placing his phone down as well._

_"Agreed." He rubbed his temples, nursing a particularly nasty headache from the interview he had prior. Mika stretched, then nodded to a couple at the table a few yards away from them._

_"Look at them. The honeymoon phase hasn't worn off yet." She crooned, taking part in their favorite game called 'Judging Other People'._

_Goro scoffed, averting his eyes. The couple was giggling and feeding each other cake. Part of him wanted to retch, the other part of him wondered if Akira would prefer chocolate cake or lemon drizzle. He groaned, hiding his face his hands. Mika froze, then slowly turned to face him._

_"Oh, no. No, no, Goro don't you dare. You can't still be whipped for that scruffy guy at your TV station gig." She keened, shaking him violently. He swatted her away, salvaging his mediocre coffee from the Mikaquake._

_He gave her a baleful look as her jaw hit the floor. Mika slapped her palm to her head, shaking her head in disappointment._

_"Goro, you_ promised _me-"_

_He slid his face behind his hands again, hiding the redness spreading across his cheeks in record time. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help it."_

_Mika choked. "What's so good about him anyway?"_

_Goro looked at her from in-between his fingers, the heat in his face making him restless in his chair. She waited expectantly for his answer, crossing her slender arms over her chest._

_"He listens to me, Mika. He has this way of making you feel like you're the only one in the world worth listening to." He coughed, looking away as he continued, "He has a nice voice. And really nice hands."_

_"Hands? Hands! Oh, my God, you're so gay." She sighed. Goro shot up, eyes flaring as a warning. Mika rolled her eyes._

_"Sorry, forgot you have to pretend to be heterosexual. But my point still stands. You need to get over it, a secret relationship is begging for the tabloids to expose you." Mika said, examining her nails. She raised an eyebrow when Goro opened his mouth to argue. He snapped it shut._

_Having mercy, she leaned on the table, pushing her barely touched non-fat, low-calorie, soy milk latte to the side._

_"What did you guys talk about?" She asked softly. His eyes lit up like a child's on Christmas morning._

_After discussing the lengthy reasons why Goro wanted to ask Akira out, Mika stalked his social media, much to his despair._

_"Mika, no. Please, leave me with at least a shred of dignity." He pleaded, hitting his head on the table. Mika giggled sweetly, tapping away at her phone with her ocean blue nails._

_"Ooh! Found him." She chimed, clicking on his profile. She cursed. "Damn, it's private. Hold on, just let me..."_

_She trailed off, logging out of her account and into Goro's. He gaped at her, watching as she happily looked him up in his follower count._

_"How do you know my password? I just changed it." He muttered, staring at his hands. Mika didn't even look up._

_"I memorized your typing movements. Oh! He's kind of cute." She said, showing Goro the phone._

_"I know he's cute, you don't have to rub it in my face." He grumbled, staring intently at the boy in the photo._

_Mika scrolled through his feed, giving her judgment in the form of many different pitched hums. After the seventh, Goro hit his head on the table again._

_"Are you done? Can you log out now -" He was cut off by Mika choking on her own spit._

_"Holy shit. Goro, what the fuck is_ this _?" She said, revealing their direct messages. "You went to the baths together, and you end up with_ this _on your phone?"_

_She points at the picture Akira had taken of them. Akira was smiling, his arm wrapped around Goro's shoulders. Goro was looking away, the tips of his ears bright red. Mika was shocked at the distinct lack of clothes._

_Goro embraced death, ready to descend to the circle of Hell reserved for the dumb idiots who didn't have the balls to confess to their crushes._

_Mika logged out of his account, then set her phone down._

_"Goro, I say this as your only real friend -"_

_"Hey!"_

_"- You need to get over him." She finished, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him lightly. Goro sighed, hanging his head low._

_"I can't make any promises."_

_A few girls passed by them, giggling and murmuring. Goro and Mika turned, the barracudas enclosing them._

_"Um, you're Mika, right? From_ Vague _?" One said, tittering like a child._

_Mika nodded slowly, applying a sweet smile to accent her answer. "That's right!"_

_Another girl giggled. "Are you dating Akechi-kun?"_

_The pair froze, trying desperately to keep themselves from laughing._

_"N-No, we're just good friends." Goro stammered, his shoulders twitching. Mika nodded, shuddering like a broken robot. The girls backed off, eyes starry._

_"Oh, ok!" One of them said, whispering something to her friend about still having a chance._

_As the girls left, Goro and Mika cracked. They laughed, seizing the table for balance._

_"Oh, my God," Mika said, howling with laughter. Goro couldn't even say anything. He just wiped the tears from his eyes and patted Mika feebly on the arm._

\--

Goro stares at Akira's profile, scrolling distractedly. He hovers over a picture with him in it, right next to one with Akira and some blue-haired boy. 

Akira smiles at the camera, right at Goro. He resists the urge to clutch at his chest, swallowing the feeling back down his throat. He glances at Ryuji, who looks down. 

"What?" Goro spits. Ryuji scowls.

"Nothin'. Just looking." He growls defensively. 

The door opens, and the boys turn to see Futaba standing in the doorway. She shuffles past them and calls up the stairs for Morgana.

"What are you guys doing here?" She asks, tapping her foot. Ryuji beats Goro to the punch.

"Waiting for Akira. Have you heard from him?" He leans back on his chair. Futaba laughs. 

"Both of you? What for?" She crosses her arms and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. Goro clears his throat and looks pointedly at Ryuji.

"I wanted to see if he was available. I'm not sure why Sakamoto is here." 

Ryuji swivels around to glare at him. Goro shrugs and circles the rim of his coffee cup. Futaba frowns. 

"Give it a _rest_ , you two. I don't know why Sojiro left you alone in here, you'd tear it apart while fighting like rabid dogs." She drawls, catching Mona as he leaps into her arms. He yawns, settling comfortably in the girl's arms. 

"I heard you from upstairs. You both need to calm down, it's not like Akira's a limited resource. You can share." Says the cat. 

Ryuji cannot _fucking_ believe he's taking relationship advice from a talking cat. 

"What if we don't want to share?" He seethes, gritting his teeth. Futaba snorts. 

"I don't think that's for you to decide. You can talk to Akira about it in a bit, he's just got off the train." She says, traipsing out of the café. 

Ryuji and Goro look at each other for a few seconds, then get up from their seats. Goro speedwalks out of the café, shoving the payment for his coffee on the table. Ryuji follows after him, grabbing his arm.

"Dude, why are you so pushy to see him first?" He asks, frowning. 

Goro wrenches his arm free. "Why are _you_?" 

He gulps. It's now or never. "I want to ask him out." 

The detective chokes. "Oh, God." 

The blonde's face falls as he realizes what's going on. They stare at each other, their mouths hanging open. 

"You like him, too." Ryuji's mouth is dry and his hands feel clammy. He stares at Goro, watching the usually composed boy look around awkwardly. He nods. 

They head back to the café and sit at a booth, looking anywhere but at each other. Ryuji sighs, ruffling his hair with his hand, watching the door. Goro fiddles with a strand of his, staring intently at the table. The silence could drown a fish. 

The bell chimes above the door, a familiar figure standing in the door. Ryuji looks up in surprise. Goro looks over his shoulder, recognizing the face of the person in the doorway.

"You were in that photo..." He trails off, then gets out his phone. 

Ryuji beams. "Hey, Yusuke. What's up?" 

The artist stops in the door frame, raising an eyebrow. "Hello, Ryuji. Hello, Akechi. What are you doing here?" 

Goro searches through Akira's posts, looking for that one particular photo he saw. Ryuji laughs awkwardly. 

"It's, uh, a long story."

Yusuke cocks his head to the side like a quizzical bird. "Oh. I didn't miss a meeting, did I?" 

The blonde shakes his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "Nah. Just... Hanging out with Akechi... In an empty café..." 

He glances down at the brown-haired detective, whose nose is practically touching his phone screen. Ryuji clears his throat and looks back up at Yusuke, grinning clumsily. The blue-haired artist smiles back, then glances over his shoulder. 

"I was not aware that you two would be here together." He says, not realizing that Ryuji is now as pale as a ghost. The problem isn't that he's worried about Yusuke getting the wrong idea, it's that the _wrong idea_ doesn't actually sound so bad. 

Akechi shoots up, having found the photo. He promptly bangs the back of his head against the uncovered wooden portion of the seat. Ryuji winces, patting his hand in mock comfort. 

"There, there." He taunts, smiling condescendingly. 

Yusuke looks back to the pair, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead. "I'm sorry, am I interrupting you?" 

He apologizes and turns as if to leave the café. The pair look at each other in shock, then Ryuji opens his mouth again. 

"Nope! Not at all. In fact, we were just about to hit the road. Right, 'Kechi?" 

Goro growls at him beneath his breath. Something about murder and how easily he could get away with it. The blonde shrugs it off, swiveling to get out of the booth. The detective grabs his arm and tugs him back. 

Yusuke's face brightens as he looks behind him. A shorter figure behind him pulls him around by his collar, bending him down to meet their lips. An arm hooks around the back of Yusuke's neck, and a hand places itself on his waist. 

Goro shoves his phone screen in Ryuji's face. It's a picture of Akira and Yusuke at the planetarium. Akira is kissing the side of Yusuke's jaw, winking at the camera. 

Ryuji feels the temperature in the room drop to a negative number. He looks back at the figure still kissing Yusuke, then to the photo, then back at the pair again. Goro glances over his shoulder, then snaps back to look at Ryuji. 

"Oh, my God." He whispers. The blonde can't say anything, he's still reeling from the shock. He blinks, then swallows.

"We fucked up," Ryuji says eloquently.

Akira draws back from Yusuke, then drags him further into the café. He stops when he sees Goro and Ryuji sitting at the booth. 

"Oh, hey, guys. What's up?" He asks cheerily. Ryuji and Goro slowly turn to meet his eyes. 

"Nothin'." The blonde squeaks. Goro just makes unintelligible sounds. 

Ryuji grabs Goro by the lapels of his peacoat and drags him out of the café, zooming past Akira and Yusuke. Yusuke waves, looking slightly dazed. 

The second they're out of the couple's hearing range, Goro prises his jacket from Ryuji's hands. The blonde looks like he's about to self-destruct, pacing like a caged tiger. 

"This is what Ann meant. Why didn't I listen to her?" Ryuji mutters, running his hands through his hair. Goro watches his black nails glint like beetle wings in his hair. 

Tearing his gaze away from Ryuji's hands, he glances at his phone. 

"The last train from Yongen is in a few minutes. Unless you plan on staying the night, I would suggest you leave." He nods curtly in the direction of the station. The boy nods. 

They each give each other a rigid goodbye. They take a few steps in the same direction, then turn to each other, eyes transfixed on the ground.

"Ah, right, the station is-" 

"In that direction, yeah." Ryuji coughs. He motions for Goro to move forward in the narrow alley. 

"Thanks." He averts his eyes and walks briskly through the alleyway. 

They walk to the station together in complete silence, glancing each other every now and then, but snapping away when the other catches them staring. The platform is quiet, and the universe decides to make everything worse by placing them on the platform by themselves. Ryuji has never seen the station empty. He likes the echoes his boots make in the eerie silence. Goro glances up at the sign for the arriving trains, then sighs. 

"Some luck we have, huh?" Ryuji half-heartedly jokes. Goro gives him a withering stare. 

The train slides across the rails, pulling to a stop in front of them. Goro's hair whips around his face, Ryuji watches as he tucks it behind his ear and adjusts his cuffs. How could someone only a year older than him be so adept? 

The universe was really pushing it because the train carriage was devoid of all other life. Ryuji takes a seat, crossing one leg over the other, and lets his ankle rest on his knee. Goro simply holds on to the bar above his head, standing a foot or two away from the blonde.

"Is your hair naturally that color?" Ryuji blurts out, his voice the only sound cruising above the lull of the train. 

"Yes." He answers curtly, tucking it behind his ear again. Ryuji smiles awkwardly. 

"It's, uh, nice. Your hair color is nice." He fumbles, mentally kicking himself. Goro blinks in shock.

"Thank you?" His voice inflects in pitch, making it seem like a question. Ryuji ruffles the back of his own hair, nodding as a response because that's what cool people do, and Ryuji likes to think that he's cool. 

He's still on the fence on whether or not Akechi Goro is cool. The whole Disaster Involving Akira really made him look normal. Still bitchy, but a normal amount of bitchy. 

The train comes to a stop, throwing Goro forward. Stabilizing himself by shooting a hand out against the window, he sighs tiredly. Ryuji looks up at him and then at the hand by his head. They stare at each other for a moment, the doors closing after no one else boards the train. 

"Um," Ryuji whispers, his face reddening. He stares at Goro's face, watching his eyelashes flutter. 

On instinct, he lets his hand slide up the other boy's cheek, angling his face as their lips brush. Sparks slide down his spine, lightning shoots through his fingers, and energy hums over his lips as Goro leans the tiniest bit closer. 

Ryuji sits forward, painstakingly close to meeting Goro's lips. Goro takes initiative and pushes forward, kissing him sweetly. 

They immediately pull apart, wiping their mouths and wrinkling their noses. 

"No, no, _absolutely_ not. Bad idea, I don't know why we tried that," Goro says, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. 

Ryuji scowls, sticking out his tongue. "Yeah, wow, not what I was expecting. I thought you would, like, kiss Akira away. You didn't work." 

Goro huffs. "You didn't work either, don't pin it on me." 

They scowl at each other and sit at opposite ends of the train seats, not looking at each other for the rest of the ride. 

Akira pauses to take a breath, his hand tousled in his boyfriend’s hair. Yusuke has his thinking face on, and Akira can tell it’s something that’s been bothering him for a while.

”What’s on your mind?” He asks, sitting back on his bed. Yusuke shakes his head, still deep in thought.

”Akechi and Ryuji were in here today. They seemed to be incredibly agitated. I do hope I didn’t offend either of them.” 

Akira’s brow furrows. “Why would you have offended them?”

Yusuke sighs, then looks to the window, watching the sunlight spill over the rooftops. 

“I may or may not have interrupted them.” He grimaces. Akira’s laugh chimes throughout Leblanc like a bell. 

“Like, ‘interrupted them’ interrupted them?” He snickers, his thumb tracing the artist’s knuckles. 

Yusuke frowns. “I believe so. Maybe I should apologise.” 

Akira hums, then falls back, hitting the mattress with a light thump. He thinks for a moment, then perks up. 

“Why don’t we ask them on a double date with us? That might make them feel more comfortable.” He suggests, tugging lightly at Yusuke’s shirt. His eyes light up.

”Perfect! Whatever would I do without you, Akira?” He says fondly, laying down next to him. Akira laughs again, but quieter.

”I’m always happy to help you out, Yusuke.” He murmurs, tracing circles on his pillowcase.

The dying sunlight filters through the blinds, blocking lines out across the bed. The two lie there, listening to each other’s breathing, content in every single way. 

**Author's Note:**

> i live for the idea that ryuji & ann and goro & mika are like polar opposites of each other, but are essentially the same.  
> sweet and simple-minded meets bitchy and smart-assed. 
> 
> anyway yusuke needed more love :((


End file.
